The Review of Reviews. 



THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC. 



The Story of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907= J909. 



A RECORD OF BRITISH PLUCK AND ACHIEVEMENT 



By E. H. Shackleton, C.V.O. 

 need to tell who Lieutenant 



rpHERF. ;s no 



-*- Shackleton is or what his book describes. His 

 ■larvellous dash for the South Pole has thrilled the 

 world, and he himself, modest, retiring, a typical 

 Briton, is now being lionised in an almost unpre- 

 cedented way. We all know what the book is about, 

 but, with the exception of a handful of privileged 

 persons, no one yet knows whether the wonderful 

 story is told in a way to grip the attention of the 

 reader or whether it is befogged with technical mat- 

 ter and overloaded with insignificant details, a forest 

 of achievements which cannec be properly discerned 

 because of the trees of minor events and experiences. 



snow blindness, dysentery, and bruises innumerable 

 staggering along on the last day, starving, half-froEen, 

 gasping for breath in the rarefied atmosphere of the 

 gigantic plateau 10,000 feet high, on which they were 

 the only living things, but indomitable and deter- 

 mined to place the Union Jack nearest the Pole. 

 These men are our countrymen, Britons every one. 

 Who dare say that our race is declining when it pro- 

 duces men like these P" 



Further description of the way in which the sub- 

 ject is treated is unnecessary. The work is in two 

 volumes. 7\ x 10, the first having 269 pages of text, 

 the second 238, and 180 pages of appendices, contri- 



■-w.ifei^ 



FortuBately we have before us the opinion of a 

 great critic who has read the proofs of the book. He 

 says, " I have seldom read so human a document. 

 Eyery line throbs with the straightforward earnest- 

 ness of one who has been universally hailed, as above 

 everything else, as ' a man.' The book grips the 

 reader from the 6rst paragraph to the last. Its 

 charm lies in its sinijile style and lack of technical 

 details. If it were not for the splendid appendices 

 the book would have little scientific value, but as it 

 is it stands oasilv first amongst books on the Polar 

 regions. The plain, unvarnished diary kept from day 

 to day by Lieutenant Shackleton of his prodigious 

 journey of within ninety-seven miles of the I'ole will 

 take its place as tlie epic of Polar exploration. No 

 one could read through the record of the super- 

 human efforts against the arraye<l forces of nature 

 without a choking in the throat, and a feeling of in- 

 tense pride in these four men who risked their lives 

 crossing ghastly crevasses, struggling forward often 

 •t the rate of onlv a few hundred yards an hour, 

 against a howling hlizzard, on quarter rations, with- 

 out a full meal in over three months, suffering from 



buted by the scientific members of the exploration, 

 dealing with the scientific results obtained. 



Nine cameras were taken by the " Nirarod," and 

 some of the explorers mu">t have been adepts in thieir 

 use, for the photographs are magnificent. 



To the MANAGER "Review of Reviews," 

 T. & O. Life Building, 



Swanston Street, Melbourne. 



Date. 



['lease, send me, carria(je paid, the two volumes of 

 Lieut, l^hftckleton's Book, " The Heart of the Antart- 

 lic," for which I enclose £SHIk (Victorian ordtri), 

 £2I6IS [Interstate and A'.Z. orders.) 



Name. 



Address. 



(Pleas; write cbearly 



